Asus Eee PC 1001P: Our Favorite Netbook
by Vivek Gowri on March 16, 2010 11:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Asus Eee PC 1001P: Awesome LCD
Starting with what is arguably the high point of the 1001P, we have our LCD testing results. The Eee 1001P is one of the few consumer systems on the market with a matte, anti-glare screen, and it is truly a revelation in comparison to the overglossed screens on many other systems (Toshiba NB205, I'm looking at you—but there are far more out there like that.).
Compared to most other laptop displays, the 1001P has a very high contrast ratio, which is a definite bonus in a budget system such as this one. The black points are much lower than almost all other systems tested, except for the 1005HA. While not as bright as some of the other LED-backlit screens, the 1001P is hardly lacking for brightness, especially with a contrast ratio as good as it has. Interestingly, all of the Asus Eee models have a max brightness of around 125 nits, suggesting that this is an artificial cap set by Asus in the brightness control software, likely for the purpose of conserving battery power. The EeeCTL utility allowed users to increase brightness on previous models like the 1005HA, but sadly development of that tool has halted. Color accuracy and gamut are nothing spectacular, but no one is going to be doing serious video editing or image work on a netbook, so those areas aren't as crucial as the contrast ratio.
In comparison to the 1005PE, the 1001P definitely has a better screen. Asus has assured us that there is only one panel supplier for the 1001P, and other users have reported equally good LCD quality. That is excellent, since the high contrast ratio and non-reflective finish make this one of our favorite netbook displays. Some might prefer a higher resolution, and while we understand that sentiment, 1024x600 on a 10.1" LCD is easier. The .216mm dot pitch is the same as a 14" 1280x1024 LCD, or put another way, if it were a 1366x768 panel, the dot pitch would be a very tiny .164mm—the same as 16" 1080p display. Of course, even if the dot pitch is about right, there's no getting around the fact that 600vertical pixel displays feel very cramped within Windows.
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Taft12 - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
Has anyone made a netbook since the Dell Mini 9 (owned and loved by me) that has no moving parts?This should be a design decision netbook makers should strive for, but I don't even know if anyone has even managed this feat since Dell did 1.5 years ago.
tlbj6142 - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
"Honestly, I would rather have XP on a netbook—any netbook. Win7 Starter is annoying and unsightly when compared to the "full" version of Win7 Home Premium and shouldn't exist in any corner of the market with its lack of Aero and the ridiculousness of a fixed desktop background."Why does this bother so many people? With a 10" screen do you ever even see your background? I know on my 15" laptop, I never do.
Areo has a couple of nice features (alt-tab layered look), but most are annoying. Especially the blurry "see through" window borders.
The real advantage Win7 has over XP is readyboost support. A $20 USB makes a world of difference in performance. Even on a 64-bit dual-core machine with 4G of ram.
straubs - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
I find the very suggestion that "memory over USB" is somehow faster than extremely fast DDR3 memory connected directly to the motherboard to be completely preposterous.SunSamurai - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
That is completely preposterous, so its a good thing no one in their right mind ever suggested that.Replace DDR3 with Hard Drive and thats what its for. It's suppose to supplement the hard drive to provide less thrashing the pagefile.
Its still crap, and all it is is a buzzword selling point for dbag sales people in the tech department to toss around at consumers. Its almost as bad at them adding dual-core Ghz speeds together to come up with 5Ghz when really selling a 2.5Ghz chip.
Toss these people in jail or fine them please!
nubie - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
I think you completely misunderstood the point of readyboost.Flash ram has much lower latency than any physical medium (IE spinning disk)
Thus if you intelligently cache the OS and some apps to Flash you can mask HDD latency, and probably improve on hard disk caching by allowing flash cache.
Hard drive latencies have a large effect on lag issues in a low-ram computer.
strikeback03 - Friday, March 19, 2010 - link
Suppose that is a good point, has anyone tested Readyboost in Win7 to see if it is useful yet? I can't, I run Windows off an X25-M so I'm sure it is faster than a flash driveTaft12 - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
What bothers people is the unnecessary crippling and step backwards from the "antiquated" Windows XP. We should be moving forward, not backwards.Also, Readyboost was shown to provide almost no benefit except in contrived benchmarks back in the Vista days and I doubt things have changed since.
mschira - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
I am not giving away my eee 1000h,It has a nice factory build in button to overclock to 1.8Ghz - effectively the fastest Atom CPU around, and boy it needs every single Hz it can get.
Asus overclocks the CULV platform, why not Pineview?
2Ghz? where are you?
M.
synaesthetic - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
Using ASRock's OCTuner utility, I've seen people overclock the HP Mini 311 (N270, nvidia ION) to 2.4GHz stable without a serious impact on battery life (lose one hour at most).I still haven't seen anything to make me want any other netbook more than the HP Mini 311, purely due to the presence of ION and the ability to increase clock speed by 50%.
QuietOC - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
This sounds like the best current netbook. I can't understand why anyone puts up with the garbage LCDs. I didn't know how good my 1000HA was until I got a 11" CULV. I agree the Atom should be clocked at 2GHz--which works on the Eee PC 1000 series. Intel actually does offer one Atom model rated for that speed but it is not Pineview.